-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A Virginia woman whose husband and daughter were gunned down in last week 's terror attacks in India says the attackers should be forgiven .

Kia Scherr , left , says her daughter , Naomi , and husband , Alan , were `` having the times of their lives '' in India .

`` We must send them our love , forgiveness and compassion , '' Kia Scherr told reporters Tuesday of the Mumbai attackers , nine of whom were killed by Indian forces . `` As Jesus Christ said long ago , they know not what they do .

`` They are in ignorance , and they are completely shrouded and clouded by fear , and we must show that love is possible and love overpowers fear . So that 's my choice . ''

Alan Scherr , 58 , and Naomi Scherr , 13 , were among 25 people who had traveled to India for a meditation retreat with Virginia-based spiritual group Synchronicity Foundation , to which the Scherrs belonged .

Authorities said the father and daughter were found fatally shot in a restaurant in Mumbai 's Oberoi Hotel , where the group was staying .

Kia Scherr , who did n't go on the trip , said at a news conference in Faber , Virginia , she is experiencing the `` deepest grief and pain I have ever known . ''

Synchronicity 's founder , Charles Cannon , told reporters Alan Scherr was in Cannon 's room at the Oberoi shortly before the attacks began on the night of November 26 . They were discussing the next day 's activities for the group .

`` He said that he was hungry and he was going down to the restaurant to eat , '' Cannon said .

Scherr and his daughter were in the restaurant with other Synchronicity travelers when gunmen burst into the hotel and started shooting , Cannon said .

One of the travelers , Andi Veragona , told CNN affiliate WTVF that she was trying to play dead during the attack , and that she was trying to calm Scherr , who was next to her .

'' -LSB- He -RSB- was panicking , and I put my hand on the back of his neck , and just saying , ` Shhh , ' '' she told the Nashville , Tennessee , station . `` And then I felt a bullet penetrate his head , and he just went limp , and he was bleeding all over me . ''

Linda Ragsdale , Veragona 's friend and fellow Tennessee resident , told The Washington Post that she pulled Naomi Scherr under a table but could n't save her .

`` I was taking in the enormity of the moment , thinking that this energetic child who I had been playing with in the pool the night before -- and had made a pact to do somersaults with -- was dead , shot , '' Ragsdale told the Post .

Ragsdale 's husband , Ben , said his wife and others played dead , but a gunman `` decided to shoot into the file of them . ''

Three of the Synchronicity survivors in the restaurant -- including Ragsdale and Veragona -- were shot , and a bullet grazed a fourth . Ben Ragsdale said hotel staff eventually led the four outside , where they caught the taxis that drove them to a hospital .

Cannon told CNN 's `` Larry King Live '' on Tuesday that he and two others were in his hotel room when the attacks began . They barricaded the door and remained there for nearly 48 hours , getting information about the whereabouts of other Synchronicity members by cell phone and their room phone , he said .

`` Slowly , we were able to account for everyone but -LSB- Alan and Naomi Scherr -RSB- , '' Cannon said . `` And we knew they had been in the restaurant at a table where four of the others who were shot and injured had gotten out . ''

About two days after the attacks began , Indian commandos escorted Cannon and the two others out of Cannon 's room , he told reporters at Tuesday 's news conference . He said the hotel looked like `` a bombed-out war zone . ''

`` Bodies -LSB- were -RSB- everywhere , glass , everything broken and smoky , '' he said of the hotel , where grenades had exploded and fires had burned .

On his way out , police asked him if he could identify any remains , he said .

Cannon said he stepped over bodies and walked through pools of blood in the restaurant to get to the table where Alan and Naomi had been sitting .

`` I found and identified Alan and Naomi , who were laying under the table , heads facing each other and their arms outstretched to each other and overlapping , '' he said . `` It -LSB- was -RSB- one of the most challenging things I have ever had to do in my life , to identify the remains of two people who I loved like family . ''

Three of the wounded Synchronicity travelers still were in an Indian hospital this week , Cannon said on `` Larry King Live . ''

Ragsdale 's son told CNN she had been shot in the back , but that the bullet hit nothing vital . Veragona suffered leg and arm wounds .

Kia Scherr told reporters she had spoken to her husband and daughter by phone in the days before the attacks , and that they were `` having the times of their lives . ''

The trip was the first time Naomi had traveled by plane , and it was Alan 's third visit to India this year , she said .

`` He told me by phone one day : ' I love these people . I could live here , ' '' she told `` Larry King Live . ''

CNN 's Brian Todd contributed to this report .

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`` We must show that love is possible , '' says mother , wife of Mumbai attack victims

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`` We must send them our love -LSB- and -RSB- forgiveness , '' Kia Scherr says

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Attack survivors describe final moments of Alan , Naomi Scherr in restaurant

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Founder of group that led trip : I identified bodies after attacks were over